Prime Minister Scott Morrison opened his 2022 election campaign with a visit to East Coast Canning, a start-up mobile canning, printing, labelling and packaging business on the NSW south coast.
Morrison was spruiking the government’s message of supporting innovation and employment, and supporting would-be MP Andrew Constance, who is aiming to overturn the marginal seat of Gilmore from Labor.
East Coast Canning owner Chris Kelly, who started the business five years ago with the help of a government grant, presented the prime minster with a custom-designed can, labelled as Scomo’s Strong Economy.
Morrison accepted the can with glee, before laying into the opposition leader’s inability to say what the current unemployment rate is, and citing East Coast Canning as an example of his government supporting a business to create employment.
From its early beginnings East Coast Canning now has 35 staff, operating five Codi canning machines around Australia. Since launch it has seamed 35 million cans, and labelled 10 million.